Saturday, November 21, 2015

Today at Logos

One of my first customers today was the tallest man I'd ever seen. He
had to duck down to come through the front door. It took all my self
control not to gawk at him, make dumb jokes about basketball, or make any
comment on his height whatever (I couldn't resist, however, snapping this
picture as he went out the door). He was a very nice man who bought a
bargain book and a philosophy book. As he paid, his hands were large
and his fingers long and slender, as befitted the rest of his physique.

I was relieving Susan today. Sandy is on vacation again and
won't be back until after Thanksgiving. Susan and I talked theater and
the news that DeLuna Jewelers, just a couple of shops down from Logos, is
going out of business. They have been in that location 47 years.
The place was filled with customers all day long. In fact, my very
first customer was a guy who bought a bargain book (a Tony Hillerman mystery) and said
he had to get back to DeLuna to relieve his wife, who was waiting in line!

I don't know what I will do now when my mother's watch battery dies. I
think they are the only jeweler left in town.

I had had lunch at Atria and then rushed home to take a nap before my shift,
so I wasn't quite awake when I took over at the store and felt that
customers were intrusions causing napus interruptus. But I was
happy to see Bruce outside at the bargain table. I hadn't seen him in
a couple of months. I noted he was in clean, well-fitting clothes
(still all in white), with no hat. He didn't find anything he wanted,
so didn't come in.

A guy wearing a Honeydew Country Store, Honeydew California sweat shirt
wandered around. I asked him where Honeydew was and he told me it was
in Humbolt County, in the northern part of the state. He bought a
bargain book on Napoleon and then looked around some more and found
"Brooklyn" in the contemporary fiction section. I saw a preview for
the movie based on the book today and was sorry I didn't see the book first!

An older professorial type guy in a tweed 3 piece suit and a newsboy type
cap looked around for awhile, then asked if we had any Bill Bryson books.
I took him to the travel section but he was looking for books on English, so
I showed him "The Mother Tongue" and other books on the English language.
He didn't buy that, but did by the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research.
He also asked when Peter works and I gave him an e-mail address.

The
next customer was an older woman bundled in grey with sunglasses and a
wonderful cloche hat. I loved the hat, but she didn't stay long and
left without buying anything. (I'm not a hat person because hats never
fit on my big head, but this one was nice.)

A woman in a sweater with a quilt pattern in light fall colors, over a navy
blue pleated skirt went directly to the mysteries, selected two books by
Amanda Cross (a mystery writer I with whom I was not familiar) and left
within 5 minutes.

A woman with a young boy (maybe 9 or 10) with a neat crew cut went right to
the children's room, but they were looking for a hard cover copy of Harry
Potter #3 and didn't find it. She said they'd check again.

Another woman with a son was looking for picture books of minerals and
rocks, but didn't find what she and her son were looking for.

An eager guy who obviously knew his way around the store said he was looking
for the history section and ended up buying a book called "Bolsheviks."

An interesting looking middle aged woman with thick, short curly grey hair
and a sturdy physique who looked at things over the top of her glasses
reminded me of "Mama" on the old Carol Burnett show. She carried two
backpacks and a large purse and bought two bargain books and two
English-Russian dictionaries.

An Asian guy came in very happy to have found a Mexican cookbook among the
bargain books.

A guy with a bag from the Avid Reader (a store that sells new books a
block away) came in to buy a bargain book.

A young woman spent a long time looking at books and ended up buying: "Back
Roads of California," "Grasshopper Pueblo," "Ishi," "Ecology of Fear,"
"Ulysses," "Babbit," "30 Simple Things to do to Save the Earth," "Cannery
Row" and "Breakfast of Champions."

My friend (who had not been in last week) arrived at 4:45. He was
coughing and said he didn't want to get close, but we talked about the
cruise and he bought a bargain book and one other, that I forgot to record.
It was good to see him again.

A rotund man wearing a cap and using a cane had a pouty lower lip and looked
like Harry Potter's Uncle Vernon. He didn't stay long or buy anything.

A hobbit-y nerdish guy with copper colored John Denver style hair and a huge
backpack as big as he was, was looking for a book by Francoise someone.
Each time I asked him to repeat the information he said it faster and
quieter. I finally sent him off to what I thought was the logical
section but he left shortly after.

Susan arrived at 5:45 and then went out to get coffee and a baklava.
She asked if I wanted anything. I said no, but heck, if I'd known she
was going to get baklava!!!.....

Probably just as well. My intestines were feeling funny. I came
home and had no dinner, but went to sleep early (which meant, of course,
that I was awake at 3 a.m.).

My heart is breaking. Peach's husband called to let me know the priest
has given her the last rites and she will be gone soon. I told him she
has been more a sister to me than my own sister was. This is very
difficult.